Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography

A

Preface

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A—C The alphabetic compilation Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography is a joint project of Institute Designlab Gutenberg at Mainz University of Applied Sciences and Kunstbibliothek — Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. It is published to mark the Bauhaus centenary in 2019 and focuses on two exhibitions: The first exhibition is history. It was staged at Berlin’s former Kunstgewerbemuseum, today Gropius Bau, in the spring of 1929.

Under the title Neue Typografie (New Typography), the show curated by Berlin’s Kunstbibliothek provided an overview of all the innovative ideas that would go on to change the aesthetics of com­ muni­cation from A to Z — not least owing to the influence of the Bauhaus, which was founded in 1919. At the heart of the show was Moholy-Nagy’s exhibition room, which looked far ahead into the future asking the question Wohin geht die typografische Entwicklung?

(Where Is Typography Headed?).

The second exhibition — this time on display at the Kunstbibliothek at its current Kulturforum location in the summer of 2019 — attempts to reconstruct the original exhibition using state-of-the-art design tools and research findings. It generates a time loop that recreates the past by means of the present, which used to be the future from the perspective of Moholy-Nagy’s era, and simultaneously allows the ideas of that period to flourish and possibly change the future again — this time the future of today.

This book, too, is an exhibition that invites readers to browse through texts and pictures and that brings together a broad range of artistic, academic, and theoretical positions. It was curated by the editors: Petra Eisele, professor of design history and theory, Isabel Naegele, professor of typography and design principles at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, and Michael Lailach, head of the book and media art collection at Kunstbibliothek — Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. We would like to express our sincere thanks to them and to everyone involved in this creative experiment at the inter­ section between book and exhibition, design and research, art and academia.

Gerhard Muth – President of Mainz University of Applied Sciences Moritz Wullen – Director of Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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B

Fig. 07

The Bauhaus masters on the roof of the Bauhaus: Josef Albers, Hinnerk Scheper, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee,

Bauhaus From 1919–1933 it was the most important art school of the »modern age.« It succeeded in drawing togeth­er the different avant-garde movements of its time and on that basis developed an aesthetic under­ standing of functionalism which united art and production.

By merging the two institutions Großherzogliche Hochschule für bildende Kunst (Grand Ducal College of Fine Arts) and Großherzogliche Kunst­ gewerbe­schule (Grand Ducal School of Applied Arts), Walter Gropius founded the art school Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1925, it moved to Dessau, where it was set up as a school of design (Hoch­ schule für Gestaltung) in a Bauhaus building that Gropius himself had developed specifically for this pur­ pose. When he left the Bauhaus in 1928, the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer was appointed as his suc­ cessor, but he had to resign from office in 1930 under Nazi pressure.

He was suc­ceeded by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who tried to sever the links between the school and the political realm. However, he was not particularly successful in this endeavor: in 1932, the Bauhaus was forced by the Nazis to leave Dessau and relocate to Berlin, where its members decided to shut it down in 1933.

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The Bauhaus played a crucial part in the development of a new educational approach to the train­ ing of designers. In order to dis­ mantle preconceived ideas and traditional norms, Johannes Itten introduced a one-year preliminary course in 1919 — also referred to as the preparatory or foundation course — which every student had to complete. During the course, Bauhaus students were introduced to the essential tools of artistic crea­ tion. Once they had finished this initial training, they went on to work in one of the Bauhaus workshops, where they learned the techniques of the individual trades from a »mas­ ter craftsman« and were taught by an artist, the so-called »master of form.« The teaching staff included such renowned artists as Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Marcks, Paul Klee, Georg Muche, Lothar Schreyer, Oskar Schlemmer, and → László Moholy-Nagy.

Many leading designers emerged from the Bauhaus. Some of them

who were particularly talented worked as so-called »young masters« in teaching after completing their training at the art school: Marcel Breuer, → Josef Albers, → Herbert Bayer, → Joost Schmidt, as well as Hinnerk Scheper, Gunta Stölzl, and Marianne Brandt. — PE

Bauhaus books The 14-volume series of Bauhaus books (Bauhausbücher) on con­tem­ porary design, written primarily

by Bauhaus authors, was published between 1925 and 1930 by Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy.

Moholy-Nagy was the master­ mind behind the comprehensive theoretical, philosophical, and educational ambitions8 of these books and created their antitradi­ tional design. He designed not only all layouts (except for book 3 and 9) and the advertisements for the

A—C

Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl, Oskar Schlemmer, 1926

books, but also the binding for the series, as well as eight → book covers.9 In 1925, the publisher Albert Langen Verlag in Munich took over this project from the → Bauhausverlag10 which had already released an

abolished: rules and other structural elements extend beyond format and content, leading from one page to the next and virtually running through the entire text block until they »produce« mirror writing on

Fig. 08

Fig. 09

László Moholy-Nagy, cover for

László Moholy-Nagy, cover for

Neue Arbeiten der Bauhauswerkstätten

Albert Gleizes Kubismus

(Bauhaus book, vol. 7), 1925

(Bauhaus book, vol. 13), 1928

format, the following journals, starting in 1928, were adapted to the more modern → DIN standard size A4. The first new issue, zooming in on photography and advertising, was conceived as a farewell publi­ cation for → László Moholy-Nagy and → Herbert Bayer. Until 1931, the Bau­haus published eleven further issues, more or less at quarterly inter­ vals, although with an interruption in the tumultuous year 1930. The peri­odical served to gen­erate pub­ licity for the great variety of activ­i­ ties at the Bauhaus.13 In terms of content, it featured an overview of different topics (e.g., of the Bauhaus stage to mark the 1927 theater exhibition in Magdeburg), articles introducing new programs (such as Hannes Meyer’s 1929 work ›bauhaus und gesellschaft‹), various short pieces on the work going on at the Bau­ haus, and announcements of events and lectures. The Friends of the Fig. 10

extensive Bauhaus publication in 1923, equally supervised with scrupulous care by Moholy-Nagy.

Conducting elaborate research on hot metal typesetting, halftone and book printing, the artist investigated the relation between → typographic material and color and how they could be adapted to create a structured and pic­ torial effect and attract attention, while rendering all texts and their hierarchies.11 Since Moholy-Nagy chose to display eleven pieces taken from the Bauhaus publications and their advertisements, they play a special role in his presentation of the → New Typography’s development.

He predominantly selected open compositions, thus prioritizing the idea of continuity. The concept of page boundaries is completely

László Moholy-Nagy, cover page of the

journal bauhaus, vol. 3, 1927 (DIN A3)

the back cover. They serve as links between images and words and even between the exhibits. The key message of the exhibition is a → montage that illustrates MoholyNagy’s envisioned liberation from orthogonal typographic constraints with the help of new printing methods. — UB ⏺ Charts 17, 18, 25, 26, 27, 34, 38, 74

Bauhaus journal To mark the opening of the new school building in Dessau, the Bau­ haus released the first edition of its journal bauhaus, compiled by László Moholy-Nagy, in December 1926.12 Bauhaus, who sponsored the publi­ After the initial four issues had been cation, received copies for their published in an unwieldy news­paper members. In general, however,

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founder of the artist group → De Stijl (meaning style in Dutch). He also published the group’s eponymous monthly magazine — with some interruptions — from 1917 to 1928 (a special issue was released after Doesburg’s death in 1931). → De Stijl’s goal was to employ universal and basic means of expres­ sion that went beyond individual styles. Similar to the → New Typog­ raphy movement, the group favored geometrical, two-dimensional shapes, vertical and horizontal lines, primary colors, black and white, and blank areas. The logo of the first edition (Vilmos Huszár) showed black rectangles that were placed underneath the words »De Stijl.« The title was printed in fragmented letterforms and Fig. 25

Theo van Doesburg, Grundbegriffe der neuen gestaltenden Kunst (Principles of Neo-Plastic Art) (Bauhaus book, vol. 6), 1925

featured rectangular → uppercase letters only. As of January 1921, the magazine boasted a new layout, designed by van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, with a standard sans serif typeface. De Stijl was printed

Fig. 26

Theo van Doesburg, cover page of the magazine Mécano, 1922

above the big, bold, and → red capital letters NB, an abbreviation of Nieuwe Beelding (new design).

In contrast, the design of the cover was very ambitious. While the first three volumes were conventional, featuring axial symmetry and stan­ dard typefaces, from 1921 onwards the magazine adhered to the prin­ ciples of the De Stijl typography: words were frequently arranged orthogonally and diagonally; titles were printed in a → sans serif type­ face and in bold capitals; and rules and → white space were used to high­ light parts of a text.

In 1921, van Doesburg joined the Bauhaus in Weimar. Since he disagreed with the expressionist style of, for instance, Johannes Itten, he began to hold lectures outside the Bauhaus and is reputed to have prompted a change in the school’s policy. At the same time, he maintained close contact with many European avant-garde artists, befriended Kurt Schwitters,26 → El Lissitzky, and Tristan Tzara, and was a member of the separatist group Constructivist International (Konstruktivistische Internationale or K. I. in German).

He published the magazine Mécano under the pseudonym I. K. Bonset, which is an anagram of the Dutch words Ik ben sot, meaning »I’m crazy.« It featured Dadaistic contributions by European artists, and the magazine’s layout was designed by van Doesburg using a mix of standard fonts, snippets from engineering catalogs, and painterly elements.

Between 1926 and 1928, when he was working on the Café L’Aubette project in Strasbourg with Hans Arp and Sophie TaeuberArp, he once again chose an alphabet with a grid-based design.

Aside from another cover design that he created for the magazine Art Concret in 1930, this was his final work as a typographer. — GB

E Elementary Typography → New Typography

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Eye-catcher series

Fraktur The lines of Fraktur, a specific type of blackletter script, are partly »broken up« (meaning that they are more angular). Blackletter typefaces were commonly used in Germany until the mid-20th cen­ tury in addition to the popular roman typefaces known as Antiqua in German. Fraktur was held to be the »German script« until it was banned by the 1941 script edict Fig. 28

Was Gutenberg ersonnen (What Gutenberg Invented), Print advertisement for Bauersche Gießerei (Bauer Type Foundry), Frankfurt, back of the periodical Typographische Mitteilungen, special issue »elementare typographie,« 1925 → Tschichold, Jan

⏺ Charts 2, 22

He showed how they could be used to highlight and point out different features.29 While the artist was driven by the discovery that → typographic

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F

(Schrifterlass) of the Nazi Party official Martin Bormann. This ended the long Antiqua-Fraktur dispute (a typo­ graphical dispute in Germany about the merits of blackletter versus roman lettering, which had farreaching political and ideological implications). — IN

D—Q

material could create constructivistabstract images and thus endeav­ored to transform and use such images in typesetting, the book printers had other goals in mind. New Typog­ The term eye-catcher series (Blick­ raphy was an eye-catcher, despite fangserien) refers to a series of eyeor perhaps because its tools were catchers, i.e., decorative elements often decried as amateurish.30 Considering the fierce competition such as simple geometrical shapes, with commercial graphic designers crosses, and → arrows designed for use in → jobbing work. They were for dominance in the advertising launched on the market in 1927 market,31 the New Typography in addition to the fashionable → sans move­ment came at an extremely serif (or grotesque) typefaces.27 convenient time. A typeset eyeThe type foundries introduced this catching element could definitely new product in response to the attract as much attention as a draw­ sur­prisingly rapid rise in the com­ ing.32 Thanks to the circles, squares, mer­cial influence of the → New etc. produced by type foundries Typog­raphy movement on book such as D. Stempel or Schriftguss A. G., 28 printers. typesetters were spared the work In 1925 and 1926, László Moholy- of having to put together the right shapes and sizes — which was Nagy had recommended »several necessary previously whenever they useful typographic symbols« from the type case (the box used to store arranged the text in geometrical shapes — as those shapes were now movable type required in letter­ ready-made and available in different press printing) in trade journals. sizes.

László Moholy-Nagy and → Herbert Bayer criticized this Fig. 27 K. H. Schaefer, type specimen develop­ment as shallow imitation for the Sirene eye-catcher series, 1927 resulting from a misunderstanding of the functional use of these elements: »the result was the rapid adoption of external appearances only. all that was left of them were crude dots and heavy bars or even ornaments […].«33 — UB

Letter spaces Non-printing metal strips of varying thickness are used to increase the space between letters and to create an evenly spaced text layout. — IN

Schwitters, and László MoholyNagy. His book For the Voice (1923) is a typographic interpretation of poems by the Russian → Futurist Vladimir Mayakovsky. El Lissitzky designed propaganda exhibitions

Fig. 41

Universal lettering (Herbert Bayer)

abc

Fig. 40

El Lissitzky, Self-Portrait

Lissitzky, El

(The Constructor), 1924

Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (1890–1941), known as El Lissitzky, trained as an architect in Germany prior to the Russian Revolution.

He met Kazimir Malevich after return­ing to Russia in 1919. He lived and worked in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union during the 1920s. His publi­ cations, lectures, writings, exhibi­ tions, and stunning abstract prints

Fig. 39

S. Sjenkin, Bericht des GewerkschaftsKongresses (Report of the Trade Union Congress), photomontage, selected by El Lissitzky for the 1927 Gutenberg Yearbook

for the Soviet Union, which com­ bined typography, photomontage, and architecture; he considered these exhibitions to be his most important works. — EL ⏺ Charts 11, 12, 13, 16

Lowercase The term is derived from the era of metal type when uncapitalized letters were stored in the lower compartment of the type case. — IN

and typographic compositions profoundly influenced the → New Typography. His friends included → Theo van Doesburg, Kurt

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M MA

The avant-garde periodical for literature and visual arts entitled MA (Today) was edited by → Lajos Kassák between 1916 and 1925.

Between 1916 and 1919, MA was published in Budapest where, inspired by Herwarth Walden’s Der Sturm, Kassák focused his jour­ nal on Expressionism and expanded MA into an institution of the Hungarian avant-garde, including an art gallery, publishing house, and performances. In 1919, Kassák and his »Activist« group of artists were involved in the visual propa­ ganda of the Hungarian Soviet

D—Q

Fig. 42

Lajos Kassák, cover page of the magazine MA (Today) with Moholy-Nagy’s Glasarchitektur (Glass Architecture), May 1922

garde periodicals. Moholy-Nagy was involved with MA from 1919 onwards, and during his Berlin years he was responsible for net­ working with international artists and collecting new reproductions for MA. When Kassák returned to Budapest in 1926, he discontinued MA and started Dokumentum (Document), a journal focused on Bauhaus architecture and design.70 — MPS ⏺ Charts 10, 23

contemporary mass audiences.

The new design principles were cautiously enacted following an approach of »domesticated modernism,« as illustrated by the magazine Die Neue Linie (1929–1943).

Launched by László Moholy-Nagy for Otto Beyer’s publishing house in Leipzig, its design features remained influential up until the war years, including the title written in the → Universal alphabet devel­ oped by → Herbert Bayer.73 While this magazine used photomontages

Magazine design

Republic. After the fall of the shortlived Soviet Republic, they went into exile to Vienna, where Kassák continued to publish MA until 1925. During the early 1920s, MA became an important forum for Dada, → Constructivism, as well as the functionalist Bauhaus idea, and took a central role in the inter­national network of avantFig. 43

Lajos Kassák, cover page of the magazine MA (Today), January 1925

As a »fast-moving« medium trying to keep pace with the latest trends, magazines were predestined to dis­ seminate the revolutionary develop­ ments in typographic design to a mass audience. Aside from moving pictures, slicks in particular were an important driving force behind the »iconic turn« of that era and helped to promote the new trend by adapting photographs of the New Vision movement. In addition to daily newspapers, their color supplements (such as the Illustrierte Film-Kurier supplement with its → montages of poster photos) also reached millions of readers.71 However, unless published by exponents of the contemporary avant-garde like → De Stijl, the → Bau­­ haus journal, or Das Neue Frankfurt, the magazines of that era were slow to adopt the ideas of the → New Typography in their design.72 Publi­ cations made widespread use of → Fraktur typefaces well into the 1930s, and attempts to squeeze as much information as possible into a page in texts and images hardly left any room for → white space.

Axial symmetry and the use of trim and decorative lines were still in tune with the visual habits of

Fig. 44

László Moholy-Nagy, title page for the magazine die neue linie, May 1931

and cut-out elements for its image material, most of the mass-produced weekly slicks only managed to create a superficially more dynamic appear­ ance by using collages, background subtraction, and breaking up the rigid layout of typeset text. — PR ⏺ Charts 16, 23, 48, 64

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N

Fig. 55

Fig. 56

László Moholy-Nagy, poster »Halt, waren

László Moholy-Nagy,

Sie schon im Kaufhaus Schocken« (»Stop,

poster for the Preussisch-Süddeutsche

have you already been at the Schocken

Klassenlotterie (Prussian-South

department store«, 1927

German Lottery), 1932

Neue Reklame Essay Future Type

→

D—Q

New Typography Fig. 54

Workshop of the poster draftsmen at the Bauhaus Dessau, »Sie entwerfen Plakate für Film, Theater, Varieté, für Reklamezwecke aller Art« (»They design posters for film, theater, vaudeville, for all kinds of advertising purposes«), 1928

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»New Typography« is a standard term in the history of design and evokes specific formal and aesthetic associations (such as reduced forms and colors, asymmetrical com­po­si­ tions, the use of → sans serif type­faces, rules, → arrows, etc.). The term was made popular by László MoholyNagy’s catalog essay entitled »The New Typography« that accompanied the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition.90 His text, however, does not contain specific formal rules and restric­ tions. On the contrary, Moholy-Nagy called for a design practice that was tailored to the desired »effect« and therefore allowed for great variety in design. The essay focuses on the »new possibilities« arising from the »integration of photog­ raphy,« which is more precise than language, according to Moholy-Nagy, and has a more powerful effect.

He dwells on the implications and consequences of the new medium both for designers and for their

audience. Moholy-Nagy asserted »the objectivity of photography« and claimed that it would force »previously receptive audiences […] to form their own opinion.« Fig. 57

Neujahrsscherz der Setzerei Oldenbourg (New Year’s Joke of the Typesetter Oldenbourg), Munich, 1926/27

lung? (Where Is Typography Headed?), he observed that the New Typog­ raphy had matured. In his view, this was expressed above all in its even greater reduction and stan­ dardization.93 This text also priori­ tizes the role of photography, yet shifts its focus to the changes in printing. In offset printing, which thrived during the 1920s, image and text could be united on the same material level in contrast to earlier printing methods. This opened up Fig. 58

Johann Niegemann, Admission ticket to the Metallic party, 1929

For many years, Moholy-Nagy was captivated by the idea that active perception and emancipation could be achieved through design, and he tested different methods to con­ vey and teach »new ways of seeing« (Neues Sehen).91 In this endeavor, typographical design and advertising art rarely played a major role. Never­ theless, Moholy-Nagy substantially contributed to the visible presence of the New Typography, especially as a result of his designs for the Bau­ haus. These rank among the classic works in the history of design and include his letterhead for the Bau­ haus in Weimar (→ Bauhaus stationery) and the → Bauhaus books. Not all contemporary typographers, book printers, and advertising designers were keen to embrace New Typog­ raphy right from the start, but owing to their extensive typographical skills they played an important part in the increasing sophistication of this art, which Moholy-Nagy described as »primitive-naïve« at the beginning.92 In his 1929 text Wohin geht die typografische Entwick­

new possibilities of combining text and image elements — as reflected in Moholy-Nagy’s → typophoto experi­ ments. Accordingly, he enthusi­as­ tically welcomed technical progress and the »future typography« result­ ing from its feats. — JM

O Organization Key concept from the newly created field of business administration that was adopted by the → New Typog­ raphy94 movement. It is thought to have been introduced by → Walter Porstmann,95 who focused on paper size, workplace, and office organi­ zation and on reorganizing the alpha­ bet in accordance with F. W. Taylor’s principles of scientific manage­ment.

His vision was to make the writing system more rational and eco­nomi­ cal by applying the principles of pho­ netic transcription and → uncapitali­ zation, which would reform spelling by assigning one distinct sound to each letter as expressed by the motto »ain laut — ain zeichen.« His ideas inspired → Herbert Bayer to come up with his proposal of a new alpha­ bet (in his article Versuch einer neuen Schrift), while László Moholy-Nagy used the term to explain the typog­ raphic interrelation between con­tent and form on an optical, logical, and rational level. — UB ⏺ Chart 53

⏺ Charts 9, 15, 17, 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 32, 34, 38, 39, 42, 62, 63, 65

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